


Wink of an Eye:  The Quality of Mercy

by Cheree_Cargill



Series: Glimpses of a Life [70]
Category: Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Acceleration, Episode: s03e13 Wink of an Eye, Gen, Seduction, antidote
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-22
Updated: 2018-09-22
Packaged: 2019-07-15 18:14:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16068596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cheree_Cargill/pseuds/Cheree_Cargill
Summary: The medical team on the Enterprise has discovered an antidote to the Scalosians' acceleration ... but should they provide it to the aliens who have captured the ship?





	Wink of an Eye:  The Quality of Mercy

**Author's Note:**

> DISCLAIMER: The Star Trek characters are the property of Paramount Studios, Inc. The story contents are the creation and property of Cheree Cargill and is copyright (c) 2018 by Cheree Cargill. This story is Rated PG.

_Stardate:_ _5711_.5 _._ _Personal Log._ _First Officer Spock recording._

After the Captain drank the antidote to the Scalosian water and "re-accelerated" to normal speed, I left him to begin repairs on the ship. My first duty was to dismantle the alien hardware attached to the life support system and then haul the pieces to the transporter room, where I beamed the material down to the surface of Scalos. I did this with each repair that I undertook if there was anything that required removing. Most systems only required a rewire and reboot.

As I worked, my mind turned to other issues. I had noticed a strange odor present around the Captain as we hurried through the corridors and I noticed the perfume again on Deela as we prepared to beam her and Rael down. I decided I needed to follow my suspicion and, after finishing my repairs, I went to the Captain's cabin on Deck 5.

For a second I hesitated because I was entering his quarters without his permission and thus violating his privacy. But I had to be sure before I acted further.

His cabin was as tidy and spartan as ever, everything in its place and his bed neatly made. However, my sense of smell picked up the same lingering aroma that I had smelled before, only it was stronger here. Undoubtedly, Deela had been present in this room and I looked closer at the bed.

The red coverlet was pulled up and in regulation order … except that it wasn't as strictly regulation-precise as it would have normally been if made by Jim's orderly. I pulled back the coverlet and found what I suspected. The bed had been occupied … and quite recently, too. There were the indents of two bodies in the mattress, which had not yet formed back into its normal smooth surface in real time.

I felt one eyebrow lift fractionally and I nodded to myself. Jim had taken Deela to bed and undoubtedly had intercourse with her. It is well-known that the Captain is quite the ladies' man, but it was hard for me to fathom that he would perform such an act while the ship was in danger.

Various reasons sped through my mind. I thought over the facts and recalled that the primary purpose of the Scalosians' distress call was to attract ships whose crewmen were compatible as breeding stock. Their queen, Deela, had obviously selected Jim as her first choice as a sire for a child and he had obliged her, for his own reason. Perhaps he had fallen under her seduction or perhaps he was playing for time. Only the Captain would have chosen sexual intercourse as a delaying device.

The purpose of the freezing unit I had removed from life support suddenly became clear. All or most of the males on board the _Enterprise_ were to be preserved for use later on. What would have become of the women I cannot say, but as the Scalosian men were purportedly sterile, our female crewmembers would have been of no use to them. But there were only two female Scalosians and how they expected their plan of saving their race to succeed escapes me.

But the fact remains, when Deela left this ship, she was likely pregnant with Jim's child. I do not know if the other female had seduced Compton before he died of accelerated old age. That, too, is likely.

I had one more job to do before I drank the vial of antidote I carried. It was the ethical thing to do. Because we had developed a cure for the acceleration, I went back to the bio lab and filled eight small bottles and packed them into an insulated carryall, then I returned to the transporter room and beamed it down to the Scalosian capital city.

Deela had told us that they had never been able to find a solution and those that had tried, had died. It was a possibility that I had just sent them eight ampoules full of death … or maybe it was life. There was no way to tell, but there was enough antidote for all five adult Scalosians, two children, and one to use as a beginning for any lab work that they cared to do.

"The quality of mercy is not strained. It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven on those below," said William Shakespeare in _The Merchant of Venice_. That phrase came to mind as I performed this final act in my accelerated state before returning to my normal self.

I wonder, however, if I have indeed provided mercy and in what form. A merciful chance at life? Or a merciful death?

THE END

 


End file.
